Christmas is coming......

Christmas is coming…….

We arrived in Nancy on the afternoon of November 2^nd about 1600 hours. Our immediate plan was to get to know the area, check out the shopping, supermarkets, boulangeries (bread shops) and the like. We then took in the sights hoping for a variety of places and activities so that we could entertain our Christmas visitors. The weather was cooling rapidly and it rained more often than not, so we cycled where we could but used public transport when necessary.

Our visitors started to arrive. Jane was first. Marg, having a bit of business with the Australian Consulate in Paris, met her there and they spent a few days “doing” the town.

 

They were soon back in Nancy followed by Peter and Elizabeth. We hoped for a White Christmas and there was snow in the air and on the ground as they arrived. Sadly it did not last and our wish was not fulfilled. Ali and John arrived on the 21^st completing the party. Liz and Jane stayed with us on Matilda while Peter, Ali and John took rooms in a local hotel. 

We all took quick tours of the City and its attractions. Most notable were Place Stanislas and the old town.

For the History oriented, King Stanislas of Poland was exiled and came to Nancy after the war of Polish Succession in 1737. His real name was, Stanislaw Leszczynsky. (Stan for short.) He completely re-designed the town for its then present and future development and this square with the buildings and avenues around it were the centre of his design. The square has been a UNESCO World heritage site since 1983. 

These buildings, all in the same basic style include the Opera House, the Hotel de Ville, a large private hotel and others occupied by smaller businesses and restaurants.

The Opera House by night in the foreground.

The Arc de Triomphe gives access to the square from the Palace du Gouvernement at the end of the Place de la Carriere

 

Nancy is well known for being the centre of the Art Nouveau movement and there are many fine examples of buildings in the style throughout the town. An area to the south west of the centre of town has a number of examples.

Another dramatic product Nancy has always been famous for is artistic glass. The Art Nouveau artists developed techniques for making beautiful stained glass in windows and other panels while sculptors worked glass for all manner of products. Drinking glasses, vases, decanters and pure pieces of art. The skills still survive with amazing articles still being produced.

It was Christmas Eve and a tree had appeared in Stanislas Square.

But, no snow.

Christmas day and we all gathered at Peter’s apartment in his hotel (120 metres across the canal from Matilda) for a croissant breakfast at a civilised hour. We all managed to contact our various families via the ‘net.

Later in the morning we  returned to Matilda and the traditional giving of gifts.

Our Christmas Dinner followed which was French – with a touch of Oz. The entrée was Salade au Chevre Chaud (Salad with hot goat’s cheese) with yabbies from Horsham (bought over by Liz), the combination was delicious. This was followed by Duck a l’Orange and finishing with Crème Brulee

 

An absolutely wonderful meal and everyone was unanimous in their thanks to Marg for its production in Matilda’s galley. As the meal was completed, the moment came for the handing on of the Christmas Champion’s baton. Liz accepted it and the next “Miller” Christmas will be at Jalumba, her home in Victoria in 2013

The evening was quiet and we all relaxed and retired early. There was a lot more we were to do – but more of that later.

Till then, keep in touch.

From the middle of nowhere

The southern branch of the Canal de l'Est from Epinal to the Moselle River is busy with commercial craft, they move all manner of bulk goods. We found one that is familiar to us loading bright orange maize. 300 tonnes of cattle feed.

The canal is going downstream and has been following the Moselle since Epinal. It travels through some beautiful wooded country. Autumn colors are everywhere.

At Flavigny sur-Moselle the canal crosses the Moselle via a pont canal.

The river is becoming rapidly larger and the canal and river soon merge and the river becomes the main route. The size of the ecluses suddenly become very large.

The geography changes too as we travel through some very hilly land. The river valley is lined with some quite steep hills. Beautiful villas abound and the villages are very attractive. On one bank we were accompanied by a disused railway line that seemed to be mostly supported on this beautiful stone viaduct that followed us for more that 5 kilometres.

We are approaching Toul and must leave the Moselle River as the appropriate harbour for Matilda is on the Canal de l'Est, (branche Nord). Access to the harbour is via a beautiful lifting bridge and around the battlements of the citadel.

Imagine having a couple of twenty four pound cannon balls coming at you from the fortified bridge in the background.

This type of structure really bought home to us just how long these canals have been used in Europe and their importance to trade.

A few days in Toul then Wednesday 2^nd November we are out on to the Moselle again for the final run to Nancy. The river was again in quite hilly country giving rise to some wonderful scenery. It takes a horseshoe bend around the village of Liverdun. This beautiful bridge and a second one almost the same, carries a railway line across the river and through the town.

The Chateau de la Flie a Liverdun looks out over the river.

We are in the waters now occupied by big freight barges and ones like this are seen all the time on the big rivers. This one is filled with about two thousand tonnes of processed scrap metal. It is being taken to a processing plant further up river that we passed a few days ago.

Early afternoon and we leave the Moselle. The Meurhe River meets the Moselle at the town of Frouard and we take the branch. Immediately we enter the canal de la Marne au Rhin via a 10metre deep ecluse. Nine kilometres later and we are in the Port of Nancy. Entry to the port from downstream is regulated by two bridges, this one lifts vertically, enough for us to pass underneath.

For the mechanically minded just look at the size of the three-stage ram that is lifting the roadway - there are two if them.

A half an hour later we are moored, rafted up, stern to the wharf where we will stay till next cruising season.

Christmas is coming up and we have family joining us. There will be stories to tell then.

So, we will keep in touch.

Epinal and beyond

Sunday 23^rd October at 0830hrs we left our mooring on the Canal des Vosges downstream of Ecluse 8 where we had to stop the day before. We were on the way up from the Saone, headed for Epinal and about to have the hardest day working Matilda to date. Eight ecluses to the summit pound which is 10 kilometres long, then fourteen down (including one “en panne” (broken)) to the embranchment d'Epinal and then 3.3 kilometres to the port of Epinal, a shallow winding canal. Taking Matilda through 22 ecluses was a huge day and at the end of it both Marg and I were absolutely bushed.

The port has recently been completely rejuvenated. Old warehouses and hard-stand areas have been removed and wonderful facilities and parkland established in their place. A number of boats were moored here and shut down for winter and we were fortunate to moor along the main town wharf, easy walking to the centre of town.

Epinal is a good mixture of the old and new. The cathedral has the evidence of about three rebuilds and in some places the old walls and battlements are very obvious.

And just across the road, an ancient stream through the centre of the town has been turned into a white water course for modern canoeists.

All these modern sporting activities proved rather boring for this old fellow guarding the historic library.

An interesting little sidelight to our visit, we were approached by two media studies students from a local college who wanted to include our home – Matilda, in one of their projects. We were interviewed and photographed as part of their paper on the different living environments of various people. We hope they did well!

Wednesday 26^th, off again. The canal des Vosges is now following the Moselle river through a wide and open country of rich pastoral soils. The plains are a result of ice age glacial activity and the soil is under laid with massive deposits of rocky gravel. This is quarried and used for many building products and industrial purposes. Barges on the canals are used for it's transport in many places but this is the first time we saw some purpose-built ones specifically for a particular run. Looking as though they were designed by a committee they looked strange but did their job very successfully.

That afternoon we moored at Nomexy, for a late lunch. A good mooring so we stayed the night. In the afternoon we wandered to the other side of the river to Chatel sur Saone, a village built on a high vantage point. There has been a castle and citadel here for over 1000 years. Finally derelict, it was all covered with a car park for a nearby government building in the 50's. It is now being excavated and it's history unfolds.

We stopped at Charmes for lunch and in the afternoon we explored the town. This poor town has had a tragic history through the centuries with war and famine right up to its near destruction (again) in the 2nd WW. The church showed signs of damage from the second world war. The steeple had been rebuilt with a modern concrete structure that was already showing the ravages of time. A sorry sight. However other parts of the town were very pretty especially with the autumn colors. 

We moved on in the afternoon and finally moored on the edge of the canal virtually in the middle of nowhere

From the middle of nowhere we will leave you. 

Till next time, when we get to Nancy, so keep in touch.

Off to Nancy

It was a lovely autumn day as we left St Symphorien on the 13^th October and after waiting for the eclusier to set ecluse #75 for us we entered the Saone at about 10.30am. We were on our way to Nancy where we will spend the winter.

We followed the original river course in a northerly direction and every now and then we entered a deviation to get past a shallow section or where there were rapids in the river. The banks were generally rich farming country and the quality of the stately historical homes bore this out.

After passing the city of Grey we entered the Derivation de Savoyeux which had a tunnel that we had to pass through. Large in section and only 643 metres long, we considered this tunnel “a piece of cake”. Being veterans of the Pouilly Tunnel allowed us to scoff this one off.

But wait. Don't be too hasty there was more in store. Another tunnel loomed on the Derivation de Saint-Albin. This one was slightly longer – 681metres but was approached by a 2 kilometre winding cutting – very difficult to negotiate and only one way at a time.

By this time the Saone was becoming – in parts – quite a small river. There were times when it was quite narrow and twisty and times when we felt that we could talk with the neighbours.

We reached Corre at the confluence of the Saone and the Canal des Voges and after entering the canal stopped at a pleasant mooring to tour the town. Next day after leaving we were stopped by a cute swing bridge operated by a one manpower machine.

Our next port of call was Fontenoy-le-Chateau, a village that for centuries had been a centre for lace making and embroidery. Today an attractive but sleepy spot that appeared to be full of retirees from around the world. It nestled into the valley and the canal wound very tightly between the hills.

We cycled from here to the village of Bains les Bains. Famous for its hot mineral springs, the population of the area have travelled here since Roman times to “take the waters”. All we wanted was some groceries and access to an ATM to get some folding money.

We were approaching the summit of the Canal des Vosges and would soon descend to the town of Epinal where we will spend a few days.The summit pound is some 300 metres above the Saone and we were stopped three ecluses before the summit by a manual one, that had no man to work it. We spent a cold and frosty night in this lovely setting. It will be Epinal tomorrow.

We will tell you of Epinal next time,

- so keep in touch.

Shortening the "to do" list

We arrived back at St Symphorien sur Saone around 1.00pm Sunday 28^th August.

Some things had changed and some things were still the same. Boats had come and gone throughout the season and now the regulars were were coming home to roost. Over the next few weeks we saw the comings and goings of many vessels and people we have met as we had wandered the canals. Most of them were heading at this time for their winter moorings, to be closed up and “winterised” against the forces of nature in the French winter.

The canals in the southern areas of France are primarily tourist canals and they close during the winter months. Commercial barges can still use them by arrangement with the authorities – the VNF, who may supply a lock keeper to accompany the barge on it's journey. It is interesting these days that even with the popularity of the canals the VNF's primary source of income from them is the supply of water to industry, as cooling or manufacture, to farmers as irrigation and to the numerous electric power stations we have seen. Even older canals no longer navigable, are used as water courses.

We had a list of things to do with Matilda that seemed to grow every time we checked. The main things were some work on the engine, replace the canvas covers around the stern verandah, rebuild the chimney for the wood fire, set up the insulation on the coach house roof and paint the cabin deck.

We also did some touristy things as well and one day with friends Alan and Ann, we drove in their car to Nuits-St Georges to visit the Cassisium, a cassis distillery. Cassis (or black currants) have been grown and distilled in this area for at least a thousand years. This factory takes as much of the crop they can get and makes a beautiful range of liquers with them. Everyone knows Crème de Cassis.

We visited at the same time as a bus load of Dutch hospitality students and were plied with all manner of samples at the end of our tour. Hard to take!

The mists and dew in the mornings reminded us that the seasons were moving on and we set ourselves a deadline of departure for Nancy before the 14^th of October. Our major projects were complete but we did not finish our painting. The deck looks a bit like a spotted animal where we have patched blemishes in preparation for a good final coat. It will have to now wait till the spring.

Thursday 13^th October, departure planned for 10.30. We notified the lock keeper the day before of our plans as we were entering the Saone river and they like to know. At 11.20 he finally left his cottage and set the lock for us – French!

Never mind – Nancy, here we come. More next time and till then,

We'll keep in touch